Wayne Huizenga: The Florida Dealmaker Who Built Empires
Wayne Huizenga liked to say he started with one truck. From that beginning he built not one but three giant companies, then bought a baseball team, a football team, and a hockey team, turning South Florida into a real big-league sports town.
One Truck to an Empire
Huizenga got his start hauling garbage, growing a single route into Waste Management, one of the largest disposal companies in the world. He did not stop there. He took a small chain called Blockbuster Video and built it into a household name with thousands of stores, then created AutoNation, the country’s largest car retailer. Three times he built a company from scratch into a Fortune 500 giant, a feat almost no one in American business can match.
A Sports Town Builder
Based in the Fort Lauderdale area, Huizenga poured his fortune and energy into South Florida sports. He owned the Miami Dolphins, founded the expansion Florida Marlins, who won the World Series in 1997, and brought the Florida Panthers hockey team to the region. For a stretch in the 1990s he owned all three major-league teams at once. Love him or not, he helped put South Florida on the national sports map.
A Florida Legacy
Huizenga gave generously to Florida charities and universities, lending his name to a business school and countless local causes before his death in 2018. His story is the classic, larger-than-life Florida tale of relentless reinvention and ambition. The next time you drop off a rental, recycle your trash, or cheer at a South Florida game, you are brushing up against the long reach of one Florida dealmaker.
